U.S. Drops to No. 27 in World for Education, Health CareHot Buzz

According to a new study based on 2016 data reports, the United States is ranked Number 27 globally on education and healthcare.

The study is organized by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. It seeks to discover "the number of productive years an individual in each country can be expected to work between the ages of 20 to 64," based on health care and education. This number is referred to as the "human capital" of a nation's people.

America's human capital measurement is 23 years, that is the amount of time a person can be expected to work at peak productivity when accounting for life expectancy, general health, and education.

Earlier in 1990, the U.S. ranked sixth in the world and the drop seemingly took researchers by astonishment.

"The decline of human capital in the United States was one of the biggest surprises in our study," said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of IHME.

The study shows that since 1990, China has had the opposite trajectory, going from 69th in the world to 44th.

Finland secured top spot with 28.4 years, followed by Denmark, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Taiwan. Niger was at the bottom at less than 1.6 years of human capital.